I started out on Celebrate chewable multi's but once cleared for tablet form, switched to Kirkland Signature Daily Multi - 500 tabs for just under $17 off eBay (along with 500mg of calcium citrate 3x a day) and my blood work has been good ever since.

Originally, I used a pill splitter to cut them into 3 or 4 pieces but after about 6 months, I swallowed them whole with no problem.

I have had excellent results over the past 5 years with CVS and Walgreens brand vitamins and minerals. They are not expensive, especially if you buy them on sale. Also Centrum Silver has a chewable multivitamin pill that is very easy to take.

Calcium citrate (with Vitamin D) is the large pill that many people have trouble swallowing. Look for the same pills in “petite” size - CVS and Walgreens sell them - which are much easy to swallow although you will have to take a lot more of them. Or, you can split the big pills yourself with a pill splitter.

Be very careful to check that your calcium pills are made of calcium citrate, as the other forms of calcium (such as calcium carbonate) are hard for your body to absorb.

Just to reinforce the point that as a bypasser (Roux en Y) you are wise to be sure you get your vits and calcium. There is excellent date that folks with a bypass HAVE to be scrupulous re; their vitamins, as deficiencies reliably occur if you don't. It's really quite possible that with time you'll be able to swallow larger pills. I personally use Kirkland multivits for men > 50 without iron (very inexpensive) and use a different (variable) commercial brand of calcium CITRATE. Always buy citrate.

I eat a ton of food with iron in it, including muscle meat and blood sausage on occasion and cook in cast iron pans, ... and last time I took vits before seeing my doc and bloodwork -> my iron studies were altered by the vits I had just taken, and she thought I might have hemachromatosis. This is when you store too much iron and it messes with all your organs. No I didn't have that but just a word to the wise, do not take your vits right before having your blood levels checked.

I still can't comfortably swallow most vitamins (the exception being the tiny vitamin A pills I was prescribed for a post-op deficiency). I use the Celebrate chewable multi vitamins. They're what's worked since I had my surgery and I figure if it ain't broke....I also love Rainbow Light's calcium citrate chews. And I drink Floradix when I need extra iron.

I eat a ton of food with iron in it, including muscle meat and blood sausage on occasion and cook in cast iron pans, ... and last time I took vits before seeing my doc and bloodwork -> my iron studies were altered by the vits I had just taken, and she thought I might have hemachromatosis. This is when you store too much iron and it messes with all your organs. No I didn't have that but just a word to the wise, do not take your vits right before having your blood levels checked.

I do have hemochromatosis BB. I was genetically tested for it many years ago (all my siblings have it which is why I was tested). Even so, after my RNY I have had to have an iron infusion, and will be very surprised if at my next checkup I'm told I need another. Unfortunately after bypass, it is often the case that we don't absorb iron efficiently anymore. I'm not allowed to take iron supplements because of the hemachromatosis (even supposed to avoid multivitamins with iron in the formulation which I don't always check), and despite eating lots of red meat and green veg I still eventually lose my iron stores. I have had B12 shots just before my blood work....it's hard to avoid sometimes due to my surgeon's visiting schedule.....and yes they send my levels into the stratosphere if my blood draw happens soon after!!!!

I do have hemochromatosis BB. I was genetically tested for it many years ago (all my siblings have it which is why I was tested). Even so, after my RNY I have had to have an iron infusion, and will be very surprised if at my next checkup I'm told I need another. Unfortunately after bypass, it is often the case that we don't absorb iron efficiently anymore. I'm not allowed to take iron supplements because of the hemachromatosis (even supposed to avoid multivitamins with iron in the formulation which I don't always check), and despite eating lots of red meat and green veg I still eventually lose my iron stores. I have had B12 shots just before my blood work....it's hard to avoid sometimes due to my surgeon's visiting schedule.....and yes they send my levels into the stratosphere if my blood draw happens soon after!!!!

Golly! Aussie, in some weird way, maybe it's a blessing you had your Roux-en-Y bypass and are no longer at the same high risk of iron retention that others with hemachromatosis are at. IMHO better to need iron infusions once in a while than to need periodic blood letting to get rid of excess iron (but then I'm not in your shoes).

For anyone reading this exchange, (especially you Lurkers), hemachromatosis is pretty common and can lead to iron deposition in your organs ... especially the liver and lead to cirrhosis. By saying it's pretty common I mean there are an estimated 1 million people in the US with it, out of a population just above 300 million. it's one of those diseases where you need 2 abnormal genes, one from each parent, to have the actual disease. A lot of people have one good and one abnormal gene. Most common in people of northern European origin. If I had hemachromatosis and needed bariatric surgery, I would get a bypass or similar, and not a VSG. Let's add this to the list of potential advantages of having bypass surgery!

Golly! Aussie, in some weird way, maybe it's a blessing you had your Roux-en-Y bypass and are no longer at the same high risk of iron retention that others with hemachromatosis are at. IMHO better to need iron infusions once in a while than to need periodic blood letting to get rid of excess iron (but then I'm not in your shoes).

Fortunately I've never needed blood letting, but one of my brothers has...That's what alerted us to the need for testing. I have been turned away by Red Cross blood bank though a couple of times for haemoglobin levels above their maximum limit for donation. These days though they can just take plasma so I doubt that would happen now. All 5 siblings have tested positive! Funnily enough our 90 year old parents recently decided they should probably be tested....I just laughed at them when they said it because with a 100% strike rate in their offspring of course they are both going to test positive for at least one of the genes. One is enough to cause overload issues although not considered full blown problematic.